5 Most Expensive Baseball Cards in the World

Eddie Plank was a Hall of Fame pitcher who spent the bulk of his career with the Philadelphia Athletics, pitching eight 20-win seasons along the way and becoming one of the few southpaws to win 300 or more games in his career.

Issued by the American Tobacco Company over the span of three years, the 1909-1911 T206 series is one of the most popular sets in the sport. Plank's card is the more rare standard entry from the set: Only 63 have been graded by PSA. (Only the Joe Doyle error card, which falsely proclaimed the New York Highlanders pitcher as affiliated with the New York Nationals, is more rare. A PSA 3 version of that card sold at Robert Edwards Auction in May 2012 for $414,750 [source: Professional Sports Authenticator].) Potential reasons for this scarcity could be because of a broken printing plate, an aversion to tobacco products, or a possible demand by Plank for more money for the use of his image. Whatever the cause, a PSA 8 is the highest-rated survivor from the set. Orlando says a PSA 7 sold privately for at least $700,000 in summer 2012 [source: Orlando].